In modern-day Paris, the Doctor and Romana realise that someone is
playing with time. They trace the disturbances to Count Scarlioni, who
is actually one of several fragments of an alien Jagaroth named Scaroth.
Scaroth's ship exploded on primordial Earth, scattering shards of his
being throughout history. Now Scaroth has accumulated the funds and
technology to send himself back in time to avert the accident. But the
Doctor realises that this would prevent the evolution of life on Earth,
which was instigated by the explosion.

Production

David Fisher's Season Sixteen story The Androids Of
Tara, a spoof of the Anthony Hope classic The Prisoner Of
Zenda, had been popular with Doctor Who producer Graham
Williams. After finishing work on The Creature From
The Pit for the programme's seventeenth season, Fisher was
immediately asked to contribute another literary parody. This time, the
target would be “Bulldog” Drummond, a tough-as-nails
detective character created by Herman Cyril McNeile under the pseudonym
“Sapper”. Drummond was introduced in the 1920 novel
Bulldog Drummond, and went on to appear in almost fifty books and
movies.

On January 12th, 1979, Fisher was commissioned to write “The
Gamble With Time”. In keeping with the “Bulldog”
Drummond novels, this was set in the 1920s, and saw the Doctor and
Romana team up with private eye “Pug” Farquharson (whose
name was an obvious pastiche of Drummond's). With gambling a crucial
aspect of Fisher's plot, he originally set his scripts in Las Vegas. By
the end of February, however, the action had been moved to Paris and
Monte Carlo, which were felt to be a better fit for a Drummond
send-up. It was decided that “A Gamble With Time” would be
the second story in both the production and transmission line-ups for
Season Seventeen, and hence it was designated Serial 5H. It would be
made between The Creature From The Pit and
Destiny Of The Daleks, although the order
of these two stories would be interchanged in the broadcast
schedule.

Doctor Who had never before
been recorded outside the UK, but the budget would accommodate filming
in Paris

Given that “A Gamble With Time” was now set in France, it
was suggested that portions of the adventure could actually be filmed in
Paris. Doctor Who had never before been recorded outside of the
United Kingdom, but Williams thought that this could be a tremendous
publicity coup for the show. In early March, production unit manager
John Nathan-Turner confirmed that filming in Paris for Serial 5H could
be accomplished on a budget similar to what recording the material on
sets would cost. However, this would mean that “A Gamble With
Time” would have to take place in the modern day: it would be
impossible to redress the French locations in the manner of the
Twenties. Furthermore, many of the sequences currently set in Monte
Carlo would need to be relocated to Paris in order to justify the
excursion.

Williams was agreeable to these changes, especially since he was unhappy
with the scripts that Fisher was delivering. Williams felt that Fisher
had indulged in the “Bulldog” Drummond parody at the expense
of writing good Doctor Who, and was also uncomfortable with the
emphasis placed on gambling in the story, particularly a sequence which
saw the Doctor cheat at a casino. By now, however, Fisher had moved on
to other commitments, and was also dealing with acute marital
difficulties; he would be unable to carry out the needed rewrites. This
left Williams and script editor Douglas Adams no choice but to tackle
the assignment themselves. Sequestered in Williams' house, the pair
worked virtually non-stop for more than three days to produce a set of
replacement scripts. Also contributing to the process was the serial's
director, Michael Hayes, who had helmed both The
Androids Of Tara and The Armageddon
Factor the year before.

Fisher's version of the storyline involved an alien Sephiroth named
Scarlioni, who has been scattered throughout Earth's history after the
explosion of his time bubble. One of his fragments, Captain Tancredi, is
forcing Leonardo da Vinci to paint duplicate copies of the Mona
Lisa in 1508. In 1928 Paris another fragment, Count Scarlioni
(inspired by “Bulldog” Drummond's original archnemesis, Carl
Peterson), is financing Professor Kerensky's time experiments by
equipping his lover, Baroness Heidi von Kleist, with a device which
enables her to cheat at roulette in Monte Carlo. The Doctor and Romana
ultimately discover that Scarlioni is trying to journey back to
prehistoric Earth and prevent the time bubble explosion in order to save
his fellow Sephiroth, who are dying from an illness he believes is
caused by radiation from the accident. However, the Doctor discovers
that the culprit is actually the common cold virus, to which the
Sephiroth have no immunity. Scarlioni agrees to let the time bubble
accident happen, in order to spark the genesis of life on Earth.

Graeme McDonald wrote to Graham Williams to question why
the adventure needed to be set in Paris

Apart from the changes of setting and the elimination of the gambling
subplot, Williams and Adams also made several other changes.
“Pug” Farquharson and Heidi von Kleist became Duggan and
Countess Scarlioni. Another supporting character, a gambling addict
named Anne Greenleefe whom Farquharson saves from suicide, was
eliminated entirely, as were Torath and Zorath of the Sephiroth. The
artist who sketches Romana in the café was originally a much more
prominent figure called Bourget, who is in league with Scarlioni. In
addition, K·9 featured heavily in Fisher's scripts, but was excised due
to the logistical difficulties of operating the prop while filming in
Paris. The shift in the adventure's focus meant that “A Gamble
With Time” was no longer a suitable title for Serial 5H, but no
replacement was devised at this stage.

As with the Season Fifteen finale The Invasion Of
Time, which Williams had cowritten with former script editor
Anthony Read, it was decided that Serial 5H would be credited to
“David Agnew”, an in-house BBC alias. This concealed the
fact that both Doctor Who's producer and script editor had played
a major role in writing the scripts, a practise frowned upon within the
BBC at the time. On March 22nd, Head of Drama Graeme McDonald wrote to
Williams to question why the adventure needed to be set in Paris in the
first place, suggesting that the production would be much less complex
if the action simply took place in Great Britain. Williams responded by
pointing out that Scaroth's plan hinges on the proximity of a priceless
masterpiece -- the Mona Lisa -- and that no appropriate
substitute could be found in the United Kingdom.

With this resolved, a minimal crew and just three actors -- Tom Baker,
Lalla Ward and Tom Chadbon (playing Duggan) -- travelled to Paris on
April 30th. Things got off to an unfortunate start when Ward had a
falling out with costume designer Doreen James, whom she blamed for the
loss of the red shoes she was to wear as Romana. The relationship
between the two was already frosty, stemming from a disagreement over
how Romana should be dressed for Serial 5H. Ward had previously taken
issue with the costume designed for her by June Hudson for The Creature From The Pit, and had gone over
James' head to Williams to resolve the dispute in her favour.

Cast and crew scarpered when Tom Baker set off the burglar
alarm at the Denise René Gallery

Work on Serial 5H was scheduled to began immediately on the 30th, with
the Denise René Gallery serving as the exterior of the modern art
gallery. However, with May 1st a holiday in France, many establishments
had decided to close on the 30th (a Monday) as well. As a result, the
Doctor Who team arrived to find the Denise René Gallery shut
tight. Hayes elected to proceed regardless: rather than have Tom Baker
enter the gallery as originally planned, Hayes would simply show the
Doctor walking up to the front doors and then cut to the interior, which
would be taped in the studio. Unfortunately, during one take Baker
actually pushed on the doors forcefully enough to set off the burglar
alarm. Cast and crew scarpered, leaving Nathan-Turner to explain what
had happened to the police.

The material set in and around the café was supposed to be filmed
the next day at the Café Coquille St Jacques. However, it
transpired that this establishment, too, was closed for the holiday, and
the proprietor refused to open it for the Doctor Who crew.
Ultimately, the scenes were mounted instead at the Notre Dame Brasserie.
Recording on May 2nd began at a building on the rue de Vielle du Temple,
which posed as Scarlioni's abode. The production then moved to the
Eiffel Tower. Sadly, a spectacular shot Hayes had planned -- beginning
with a close-up of the Doctor and Romana which would pull back to reveal
them standing high atop the Tower -- had to be abandoned when the
special lens rented for the sequence from a Spanish firm could not be
made to fit the BBC camera. More problems were encountered at the day's
final location: Hayes' team arrived at the Louvre to discover that they
had been denied permission to film on the museum's grounds. Frustrated,
Hayes elected to hastily capture the required material anyway.

The final day in France was May 3rd. This was chiefly spent on various
Parisian roadways and on the Metro, although additional recording also
took place at the Notre Dame Brasserie. By now, the crew was fully aware
that the burgeoning relationship between Baker and Ward had developed
into a genuine romance over the course of the French excursion.
Meanwhile, around this time, Serial 5H briefly gained the working title
“The Time Of The Sephiroth” (although “Curse Of The
Sephiroth” may also have been considered). By the 8th, however, it
had been rechristened City Of Death, while the Sephiroth
themselves became known as the Jagaroth. The same day, model filming
began at Bray Studios, and continued until May 10th.

John Cleese was at TV Centre filming Fawlty Towers, and accepted Douglas Adams'
invitation to appear as one of the art critics

The initial studio session for City Of Death was held in BBC
Television Centre Studio 3 on May 21st and 22nd. The first day was
devoted to scenes in the café and in the modern art museum. Since
late April, Adams had been in touch with famed comedian John Cleese
about appearing as one of the art critics. Cleese and Adams had worked
together on Monty Python's Flying Circus, and also knew each
other through Cleese's fellow Python, Graham Chapman. As it happened,
Cleese was available for Serial 5H's first recording block, since he
would be at BBC Television Centre working on the final episode of
Fawlty Towers. Adams suggested that the other critic could be
played by Alan Coren, a regular panellist on The News Quiz and an
editor for the humorous Punch magazine. Cleese was agreeable to
this, and suggested Jonathan Miller and Alan Bennett (who had both shot
to stardom in the stage revue Beyond The Fringe) as alternatives.
In the event, the second critic was played by Eleanor Bron, a popular
satirist who had been the first female castmember of the long-running
Cambridge Footlights revue.

May 22nd dealt with material in Leonardo's studio, in the Jagaroth ship
and on prehistoric Earth. It also brought an abrupt end to Doreen James'
involvement with City Of Death, and with Doctor Who in
general. The rapport between Ward and Doreen James had continued to
deteriorate since their contretemps in Paris, and at the conclusion of
the first studio block, James informed Williams that she was quitting
the serial and would not be returning to Doctor Who. In fact,
James was scheduled to design costumes for both Nightmare Of Eden and Shada later in Season Seventeen, but she was
now replaced by Rupert Jarvis. Jan Wright took over James' duties,
uncredited, for the final recording session on City Of Death.

This took place in TC6 between the 3rd and 5th of June. The chief set
for this block was Kerensky's lab, which was utilised all three days.
June 3rd also dealt with material in the basement storeroom and the
hidden chamber adjacent to it. More scenes in the storeroom were taped
on the 4th, along with sequences in the TARDIS, and in Scarlioni's
library and its adjoining corridor. The montage depicting Scaroth's
various fragments was completed as well. The final recording day took in
the remaining material in the library, plus scenes set in both the
actual Louvre and Scaroth's mock-up.

Bolstered by a strike at ITV, episode four had 16.1
million viewers, the most ever for Doctor
Who

Cleese was not interested in garnering a lot of publicity for his
Doctor Who appearance, for fear of detracting from the regular
cast. To this end, he suggested that he be credited on City Of
Death as “Kim Bread” -- a name he was fond of and would
use on later projects. It was planned that Bron, similarly, would be
accorded the pseudonym “Helen Swanetsky”. McDonald turned
down these requests, however, and both Cleese and Bron were credited
under their real names when City Of Death was transmitted.

As it happened, the story's broadcast in September and October occurred
during the final weeks of an industrial dispute which had kept ITV --
the BBC's major competitor -- completely off the air since August. As a
result, City Of Death enjoyed phenomenally high ratings,
averaging 14.5 million viewers and reaching a peak audience of 16.1
million for episode four. These were the largest viewing figures ever
attained by Doctor Who; indeed, alternative audience measurements
put the viewership for City Of Death closer to an incredible
twenty million people.

City Of Death was the final Doctor Who serial directed by
Michael Hayes. He subsequently worked on programmes such as All
Creatures Great And Small and Skorpion before retiring during
the Eighties. He passed away in 2014. Meanwhile, City Of Death
went on to become one of the very few serials from Doctor Who's
original run not to be novelised for Target Books. Having attained
worldwide success with The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy,
Adams commanded page rates well in excess of what Target was able to
offer, and refused to let anyone else tackle the story. Later, however,
Adams recycled many elements from City Of Death in his 1987 novel
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency.